Petco Love Investments Help Heroes at Both Ends of the Leash this Veteran's Day

Nearly $1M in grant investments support organizations throughout the country dedicated to service, therapy, and working pets, focusing on helping our nation's veterans

News provided by

Petco Love

Nov 11, 2021, 08:05 ET

SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- National nonprofit Petco Love awards nearly $1 million to support Helping Heroes this Veteran's Day. Since 2009, Petco Love's investment of more than $16 million bolsters efforts to train and support animals who dedicate their lives to saving and improving the lives of others. The "Helping Heroes" initiative focuses on those organizations that take pets from shelters and transform them into heroes to assist people in need, primarily our nation's veterans.

Petco Love is proud to support organizations like K9 Partners for Patriots, Inc. through its Helping Heroes grant investments.

Petco Love is proud to support organizations like K9s for Warriors which help train and pair shelter dogs with veterans, like Navy veteran, Damian, and service dog, Shai.

Petco Love is proud to support organizations like VA Dogs of Texas which help pair shelter dogs with veterans. When Navy Veteran Alessandra began experiencing PTSD-related symptoms, adopted service dog, Kota, helped her regain confidence and independence.

A multi-phase research program at Purdue University indicates that veterans paired with service dogs showed lower PTSD symptom severity and better mental health. Purdue professor Maggie O'Haire said, "We've demonstrated that service dogs can provide a higher quality of life for some of our nation's veterans living with PTSD. Expanded funding, like that provided by Petco Love, is essential to meet the demand to expand this much-needed research."

"This Veteran's Day, we are reminded that 18 veterans lose their lives every day to suicide. There is an overwhelming need for trained service and companion dogs to support their needs," said Petco Love President Susanne Kogut. "We are honored to provide the vital support necessary to assure that more shelter dogs can become trained canine companions to help veterans—saving lives at both ends of the leash."

This funding announcement follows the September 2021 grand opening of the new Petco Love K9 Center in San Antonio, TX, a facility made possible through an earlier $2 million commitment to K9s for Warriors. The new facility will expand efforts to train shelter dogs to become service dogs to improve the lives of veterans nationwide.

A selection of organizations receiving investments include:

Companions for Heroes: Trains animals from shelters or rescues to be either companions or help complete tasks for heroes with disabilities.
4 Paws 4 Patriots: Provides medical/psychiatric service dogs to change the lives of disabled veterans and their families.
K9 Partners For Patriots, Inc.: Adopts qualifying shelter and rescue dogs to help veterans who are facing a war all over again as they cope with anxieties born of service-related PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and/or military sexual trauma.
Service Dogs Inc.: Builds better lives for Texans overcoming challenges through partnerships with custom trained assistance dogs provided free of charge.
National Disaster Search Dog Foundation: Strengthens disaster response in America by rescuing and recruiting dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders.
Working Dogs for Conservation: Whether it's law enforcement, biosecurity, or ecological monitoring, WD4C rescues and trains dogs to assist with conservation efforts.

Visit PetcoLove.org to learn more about Petco Love's lifesaving impact spanning more than two decades and follow along on social media @Petcolove.

About Petco Love
Petco Love is a nonprofit changing lives by making communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since our founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, we've empowered animal welfare organizations by investing $300 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We've helped find loving homes for more than 6.5 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide. Today, our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us. Is love calling you? Visit petcolove.org or follow at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to be part of the lifesaving work we're leading every day.

About Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine
The Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine seeks to advance global animal and human health and well-being through excellence in learning, discovery and engagement while serving as a major referral center for the diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases. Faculty research both animal and human health, with an emphasis on animal welfare science and the human-animal bond; infectious diseases and immunology; cancer; neuroscience; and musculoskeletal biology and orthopedics. The college also is one of only a few nationally that educate all members of the veterinary team, offering the doctor of veterinary medicine degree as well as bachelor's and associates degrees in veterinary nursing, post-graduate internships and residencies for veterinarians seeking specialty training, and graduate degrees in the departments of Basic Medical Sciences, Comparative Pathobiology, and Veterinary Clinical Sciences. For more information visit www.vet.purdue.edu.

Contact: Jennifer Perez, Petco Love, 210-870-6481, [email protected]

SOURCE Petco Love